STANDPOINT

Things that are annoying me today? Glad you asked. Here’s a list.

» Movies. Why do they all have to be exceedingly scary or outrageously post-apocalyptic or synthetically romantic or completely awful? I think there’s enough of all that on every so-called news program. (However, I did see Crazy Heart yesterday and it was a really solid exception.)

» Snow. I love when it snows. But one aspect of every snowstorm I despise is crybabies lamenting as if the streets are covered in razorblades and land mines, instead of harmless snowflakes. Oddly enough, these are the same people who get in their cars and, perhaps in some sort of misplaced defiance toward Mother Nature, drive around like it’s a clear and dry sunny day in August. Slipping and sliding all over the road, causing accidents they’ll blame on “the fucking snow.”

» Facebook. It’s not the social networking site that bugs me. I like it. I use it. I’ve reconnected with lots of old friends on it. I’ve even made some new ones. But it’s truly sad to read updates from people you once knew to be of sound mind, gripe about kids, spouses, politics, etc. For the record, I’m fully aware my own status updates are inconsequential nonsense.

QUOTATION

TUNE

Every group of friends has a song that only they seem to know, and only they think is absolutely awesome. It’s usually due to the song being associated with some particularly good time. For me and my college friends, that song was “Both Belong” by The Grays.

Irksome: As I write this, it is Sunday evening and it is snowing heavily outside. The forecast is calling for 6”-10” of snow for Monday morning. In the city of Philadelphia, a snowstorm brings out three distinct groups of people:

Alarmed – You walk around your workplace, ask for a weather update every other minute and express absolute astonishment that it might snow as if you live in Mexico City. After work, you drive as fast as you can to the supermarket, buy enough groceries for approximately 6 weeks, speed home, gather your family around, tell them how much you love them and hope that the sun rises in the morning. The sun does rise in the morning and you now have to find a way to use 12 cartons of milk before they spoil.

Ecstatic – You can’t wait for the snow because it means (a) you don’t have to work the next day, and (b) you can get completely drunk like there is no tomorrow. The next morning at 6AM, you wake up to a call from your boss saying that you indeed have to work and you spend the rest of the day cursing “the goddam weatherman.”

Stoic – You are prepared for it to snow. You half-believe the weatherman. You live your life like it is just an ordinary day. The next day is business-as-usual.

Quotation:“Some days it’s incredibly easy to write four thousand words in an afternoon. Other days, it’s impossible to write two sentences. There’s no consistency with the difficulty of the process.” – Chuck Klosterman

Tidbit: The term five-hole in hockey refers to the space between the goalies legs. The other holes are the four corners of the goalmouth. As long as I’ve watched hockey and I didn’t know that until this weekend.